


What your color is

by oubastet



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, the rest of the blue lions are mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 02:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21110996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oubastet/pseuds/oubastet
Summary: Dimitri never would have guessed his soulmate would be the one he pined for. Yet five years will do much to a person. When he finally takes the time to take in this new world of color does he accept it.





	What your color is

**Author's Note:**

> i cooked this meal in 2 days because i need more mbyleth dimileth.
> 
> like always nothing is beta read because i'm an animal

They were called the Blue Lions, but Dimitri didn't even know what the color blue should look like. He was adorned in it, surrounded by it, reminded of it, yet for all his years alive he didn't know what he was looking at. Then again, colors were all muted to someone who had never encountered their soulmate. Even if it was the person right next to him, he wasn't even of the proper age for colors to truly blossom. About five or so more years people said, and everything would change when he found his special partner. His world would brighten and overflow with color.

Then he met Byleth. The man had one expression; straight-faced and a little cold, but his experience in battle was evident in the way he carried his blade. Dimitri was helplessly smitten, admiring him from afar as they walked to the monastery. The archbishop had bid Jeralt, Byleth's father, to return to the Knights of Seiros with his child ultimately following behind. Dimitri wondered what would become of him. Mayhaps he would join the Knights, or attend classes as a student without a house. Either way, if he was staying at Garreg Mach, it meant Dimitri had all the time in the world to get to know him. So many questions were already running through his head! What his sword techniques were, how long he had been training, what weapon he preferred- too much to ask in a single sitting.

Shockingly, Byleth was to be a professor, with first pick of which house he would like to teach. Hoping and wishing his house would be picked, Dimitri tried to act as collected as possible. His house companions saw the nervous set to his jaw, the tapping of fingers on tables. Dedue asked if he was alright more times than necessary, but Dimitri was putting himself through unnecessary panic. Whatever Byleth chose wasn't his problem or it shouldn't be, since either way he would be staying at the monastery.

His worry was all for nothing when he watched Byleth stride into the Blue Lions classroom the next day, and Dimitri gazed with an open mouth as Byleth announced he would be teaching them. Everyone seemed pleased, as he had become the new favorite practically overnight. Dimitri's heart soared, and he straightened his posture. 

The next few months went by in a blur, and Dimitri felt himself become more smitten with each passing day. When he saw Byleth's first smile, oh it was all over. He imagined Byleth as his soulmate, imagined what color his eyes and hair were. What holding his hand would feel like… All shamelessly innocent wishes that still sent his face aflame with embarrassment. The night of the ball, Dimitri noticed Byleth standing off to the side, students on all sides asking him for a dance. Only when Claude stepped up, taking the professor's hand and twirling him around playfully did Dimitri feel a pang of jealousy. His smile was bright and relaxed as he let himself be dragged around by the leader of the Golden Deer house. Dimitri watched, hypnotized, until they finally broke apart. He dared not go to his professor, much too embarrassed to think about asking for a dance. Their eyes caught, and Byleth nevertheless approached Dimitri. He seemed a little breathless, grabbing a glass of water on his way over and chugging it in one go. Dimitri stifled a laugh, and it seemed to make Byleth smile wider.

Then five years of sidelining the memories of those chaste smiles, talking beneath the Goddess Tower, holding the professor’s hand as everything around them falls apart.

Dimitri is a ghost of his past self, more akin to a beast than human, gnawing at the bones of his previous existence. He doesn't care, he doesn't think much of anything except avenging those who haunt him. Their pleading voices, full of pain and anger, telling him to rip Edelgard's head from her shoulders. Occasionally Byleth is there, too. He gazes at Dimitri with those same cold eyes as when they had first met. Gone was the sparkle that had begun to creep into them until the monastery fell. Instead therein lies disappointment.

Often times Dimitri wonders if he's killed his soulmate or that they ally themselves with his enemies. If so there isn't anything that would stop his lance from plunging through their gut and out the other side. His world is dark and bleak and lonely. Fitting for a monster such as he.

He hears footsteps this evening as he rests, blood drying on his armor and sticking to his face. The empire's dogs left to rot after intruding upon his territory. Perhaps this is more of them come to finish the other's work, seeing if Dimitri has been weakened by wounds or fatigue. His strength and endurance have always won over others so he plans to make quick work of whomever interrupts his moment of respite. Head bowed, he tightens his grip on the lance beside him.

A gasp, so soft and full of realization makes Dimitri look up. The setting sun glares against his one eye and he winces. Gaze going across the room, he sees familiar boots, the white marking unmistakable. He looks up further and sees the professor, wide-eyed and still. Dimitri knew one day this ghost would be permanently ingrained in his vision, joining the ranks of the dead.

"So you've come to haunt me, too, professor?" Dimitri drawls out, his voice hoarse from limited use. Usually he's snarling or shouting so he can only croak out a response.

Suddenly, as Byleth continues to stare at him, something bursts across Dimitri's vision. He hisses as jabs of pain make him close his eyes. He can hear Byleth hurry over and hover. When Dimitri next opens his eyes something is different.

The stonework has color splashed over it from the window, warmth seeping into it. His armor is the same, but he notices his cloak is a deep yet dazzling hue. He had asked for blue cloth, knowing others who knew color would see it for what it was. So this was blue. He was mesmerized.

Turning back to the man in front of him, Dimitri saw the hand held out to him, then looked up. Byleth's pale hair and glimmering eyes, which were awash with what seemed like worry. This expression was new to his ghosts. Color was everywhere, spreading out and dying his world in completely different shades. Byleth had made that color appear. Byleth was his--

Dimitri stood up, ignoring the hand offered to him. He marched towards the stairs, hearing footsteps behind him. He walked with purpose all the way to the cathedral, standing in front of the pile of rubble that had been his station for so many moons. The professor stood beside him, seeming unsure of what to do. Dimitri wondered what his world was like now, awash with color. They stood there quietly, until Byleth rummaged in his belongings. It was a little chart with a wheel, a word in each section. It looked like a wheel of colors, all labeled, and there were so… many.

"Pink." Byleth then said, running a finger along the markings of his shirt. Dimitri watched those fingers caress the color wheel as Byleth said each color in turn. Yellow, red, green, purple, orange…

"Blue." His hand had gone to Dimitri's cloak, and while the prince didn't care enough to shove him off, he still glared. 

"Surely you see it now, too." Byleth said quietly, his tone requiring no answer from Dimitri who still decided to give one.

"And? Nothing will come of it. Everything ends when I kill that traitorous woman. Including me." He spat, anger broiling deep down in his chest. It bubbled like water left too long to boil, steaming and far too hot. Byleth's brow knit together as if he didn't like Dimitri's answer but he said nothing.

"We may share a bond, but I care not for such trifles. Nothing matters aside from her and finding out how hot her blood feels against my skin." He lifted his lip and bared his teeth, a little bothered about how unmoving Byleth was. The man stared back at him with that sad expression and Dimitri turned away with a growl. 

A part of him buried underneath everything cried out, pleaded with himself to treat his professor kindly, lovingly. He wanted desperately to do just that but there was a pit in his stomach. Byleth had been away who knows where for five whole years, ignoring Dimitri's cries into the night, his sorrow, his hurt. Byleth couldn't just show up and expect everything to go back to how it was. Even if they were soul bound. Especially so. Byleth was too good for him.

Weeding out rats had brought in unexpected company. His friends from the past; remembering their promise to meet again in five years time, all together again. Dimitri ignored them, his brain muddled with anger and the ghosts that constantly whispered in his ear. 

On his way to get food, for he knew he had to keep his strength up, he happened upon the professor eating dinner with his old students. They were all overjoyed to see him alive, chattering excitedly and sitting close. Dimitri hung outside the door, holding a bowl that he brought to his lips and noisily slurped. Table manners had been forgone years ago.

"Professor, I'm so happy that you're alright! We looked for you for quite some time." Came Mercede's voice, laden with relief. Ashe spoke up after her, sounding like his nose was all congested from trying to hold back his tears. "We only gave up because the empire was sniffing around the monastery! We'd never have left if we had known you were alive."

Byleth's voice, smooth yet strained, relieved their worries. "Thank you, and I apologize for returning so late. I was asleep."

"Professor! That's such a terrible excuse!" Annette wailed while Mercedes chided her for dropping silverware. Byleth laughed softly and Dimitri felt his chest blossom with something else he hadn’t felt in years. His thoughts were interrupted when Sylvain spoke up with a question.

“So, professor, have you started seeing colors yet? A few of us have so I was just curious, since you’ve been gone so long.” A smile was evident on his face by his words, wide and fake. Sylvain only cared about those things by pretense of his facade. Nevertheless Dimitri squeezed at the bowl he held, jealousy gouging into his armor. 

“I have in fact.” Answered the professor, receiving interested exclamations from his table companions and a snort from Felix.

“Who is it? Do you know?”

“Did you see them after coming back to Garreg Mach? It must be someone here then?”

The questions made Dimitri’s anger surge and he clenched his hand around the edge of the bowl. It shattered into pieces and he heard shocked gasps from the cafeteria as the residents went quiet. He watched the remnants of broth drip from his fingers and then heard the scrape of a chair across the floor. Sure enough, Byleth came out to stand next to him, eyes observing the beast who stood there in the darkness. Dimitri gazed down into those eyes, a light green color he realized, and narrowed his own.

“Hmph.” Was all he said before stalking away. Behind him he heard more footsteps join Byleth and whispering about how they were so “sad to see the prince in such a state.” It didn’t bother him, he had chosen this path and he would keep on going until his last breath. The only thing he cared about was ending that woman’s life.

Or so he told himself. Continuously told himself that he wouldn’t care about what Byleth thought. It slipped through every so often, and every time he did think about it the professor was there, giving him that look. Not one of pity or anything of the sort but instead he seemed to be trying to will Dimitri in taking steps forward in a different direction. What direction he wanted was a complete mystery, because there was nothing else to do but kill Edelgard, wasn’t there? What other way could he walk, especially when the pleas of the deceased rang in his ears the loudest of all.

Only until the living around him began to follow suit did Dimitri wake up.

Staring up at the moon through the open, cracked ceiling of the cathedral Dimitri thought and thought about it all. The moon was silver, coating the stone beneath him in its vast light. He had discovered a newfound appreciation for the colors around him. Though much to his dismay he finds the bright red of blood being much too similar to the sky’s beautiful dawn. It weighed on his mind, but not as much as Byleth.

The professor knew Dimitri had found his resolve, and here he was, standing beside the prince until their shoulders touched. Dimitri wanted to reach for his hand but figured it would be too forward. Their relationship had been quite strained for months so it wasn’t proper to expect Byleth to be unfazed by it.

“Professor?”

A hum in response.

“I… I would like to apologize for my behavior these past moons. I hope one day you will learn to forgive me…” Dimitri said slowly, unable to look next to him to see what sort of expression Byleth was making. “We are bound by something we cannot explain, but I understand if you would not wish to…” He trailed off, finding the words hard to say.

Dimitri jolted when Byleth leaned his head against the prince’s arm, rubbing a cheek against the fur of his cloak. It was far more intimate than what Dimitri was expecting but he stayed still, uncertain as what to do.

“Thank you, Dimitri. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help you.” Said Byleth, like it was all his fault in the first place.

“That’s--” Dimitri started, turning and looking down at him with worry etched across his face. He stopped, looking into those bright green eyes. “You did nothing that warrants blame, professor. The world has been cruel, but you have never been.”

Byleth smiled and Dimitri gasps softly in the back of his throat. He loves that smile, loves when it’s only for him. “That’s very kind of you to say.” Byleth says matter of fact, suddenly taking Dimitri’s hand. He opens the man’s palm, rubbing a thumb along the tattered glove. Eye wide, Dimitri dares not pull away.

“Did you see the sunset today?” Byleth asks, waiting for Dimitri’s response. He continues after seeing a nod. “It was beautiful, wasn’t it? I never knew they had that many colors. And the moon has its own color despite not seeming like it would. You see them, too, don’t you?” Another quiet nod from Dimitri.

“I really like the color of the sky. The blue of your cloak.” Dimitri feels his face heat up, unable to do anything but lock eyes with Byleth. “Your eye is blue, too.” The professor reaches up a hand, caressing his other thumb across Dimitri’s cheek under his eyepatch.

“This must have been painful.” His face contorts in sadness and Dimitri edges closer. “Yes, but not as much as losing you, professor.” Byleth’s face brightens and he lets out a small chuckle, placing his other hand on Dimitri’s opposite cheek. Dimitri is much taller so he needs to lean down a bit to make it easier for them, but that just seems to make Byleth more amused.

“You weren’t always this tall.”

“You’ve only just noticed, professor?” Dimitri dares to tease, hesitant but desperate to continue this more light-hearted conversation. His heart sings for the simplicity of it.

“No, I just never had the chance to say it.” 

They both go quiet again, just enjoying each other’s company and body heat in the crisp night air. Winter is still clinging to the monastery, and while those of Fearghus are used to such climates, Dimitri knows Byleth is not, so he tucks his cloak tighter about their shoulders. Byleth leans further into the embrace and a content sigh escaped his lips. Dimitri fidgets a little, resting his head atop Byleth’s.

“Professor, if I may?” Another hum in response, sounding inquisitive. “I only saw it once, but might you still have that color wheel on your person?”

He feels Byleth’s shoulders move as the man rummages around in his pockets, proceeding to bring out the little chart and patting on Dimitri’s chest with it. “There’s more to it than red and blue. Would you like to look at it together?” Dimitri nods vigorously and they go to sit on a pew. They sit close together, with Dimitri’s cloaks wrapped around them as Byleth hands him the color wheel. There are the basic colors Dimitri noticed but many more in between. Byleth’s hair is a mint color and his eyes are a brighter green. So many shades and combinations that it makes Dimitri’s head spin.

He finally leans back, wondering how on earth he can remember it all. Byleth leans forwards, resting his elbows on his knees and watching Dimitri. “It’s amazing what things look like now. Everyone is so much livelier, it’s truly amazing.”

“People look so much more different when they aren’t faded.” Byleth commented with a nod, his eyes not leaving Dimitri. The prince turned to him and gave a smile so fond and overflowing with longing that he could tell Byleth became meek beneath it. “You look dazzling, professor. Everything about you positively glows.”

It was Byleth’s turn to have his face go red and he ended up turning away, covering his mouth with a hand. Dimitri chuckled, putting the color wheel aside to focus on Byleth.

“Would you stay with me professor?”

Byleth was silent for a few moments, but he nevertheless faced Dimitri with a steady gaze. “My world became colorful because you are in it. Of course I will stay with you, Dimitri.”

Heart warming, Dimitri’s whole body trembled. “Ah, you have no idea how happy that makes me… Hearing you say that. I have no idea how to thank you.”

Leaning against him, Byleth closed his eyes contemplatively. “Thanks aren’t needed. Even if we weren’t bound by this fate I would still choose you.”

Breath hitching, Dimitri bit at his lip. His heart pounded in his chest, which Byleth could surely hear, and dipped his head. “Professor…” He mumbled, not knowing what else to possibly say. He was overwhelmed with everything, wondering how he had ended up this way after all he had done. Spitting curses at Byleth and everyone around him, taking no consideration for himself or others. Yet here he was, having Byleth with him despite it all.

Byleth unabashedly announced their situation the next afternoon when the Blue Lions were sitting down for a meal together for the first time with Dimitri included. Having bent his fork in shock, Dimitri stood up to apologize to the staff and get a new one. He could hear his friends talking behind his back as he did so.

“How unfortunate for you to have a boar like him as your soulmate.” Felix snorted from his spot next to Ashe, who nudged him exasperatedly. “Come on, Felix, don’t be mean. It’s a happy occasion!”

“Congratulations, professor! It must be so nice!” Annette cooed, her cheeks red from smiling so much. She gripped Mercede’s hands tightly in her own while the other young woman wiped a faint tear from her eye. Dedue gave a rare smile, warm as he gathered up his plate to clean. “His highness hides his jubilation but I can see that both of you are happy. I’m very grateful.” Ingrid nodded, smiling widely as she glanced over at Dimitri. “I’m glad it is you, professor. Quite honestly I’d noticed his pining for you when we were students, so it’s lovely to see requited love.”

“I wish I could find my soulmate, too. It seems everyone has someone now, huh...” Sylvain said, his tone seeming depressed. Ingrid gave his shoulder a lackluster pat, but her smile was fond despite that. “I’m sure they’re somewhere, Sylvain.”

“Even Felix found his soulmate! To think he’d find love before me…”

“Shut your mouth or I’ll shut it for you.” Jabbed Felix.

“Felix, please…” Mumbled Ashe, though he sounded a bit embarrassed.

Byleth watched them all, smiling softly at their comradery. It lifted his spirits. Then he turned to look up, watching as Dimitri took up the seat next to him again with a new fork in hand. The prince continued eating, though much more bashfully.

“Would you get married after the war, professor?” Asked Annette expectantly, leaning on the table playfully. Dimitri choked on his food to resist bending yet another fork, watching byleth out of the corner of his eye. The professor hummed softly, fiddling with some of the carrots on his plate. Everyone watched with bated breaths, until finally Byleth spoke.

“I plan on it, though I will wait to ask. Now is a difficult time.” The girls resisted to squeal in delight by covering their mouths, eyes nevertheless sparkling. Sylvain let out a groan, probably wishing for something similar. Dimitri’s face went red and he was unable to meet Byleth’s gaze, though he could tell Byleth’s stare was pinned to him.

“I… would want nothing more.” He finally said, feeling Byleth’s hand entwine with his own and squeeze. “Thank you.” Said Byleth, like it was just him that felt this way. No amount of ‘thank yous’ would be enough for Dimitri to say to him, so he refrained for now. Instead he finally let himself relax, knowing he was around people who cared for him and wished for his happiness. Byleth most of all.

“Professor?”

“Yes?”

“I’m glad it’s you.”

Dimitri didn’t care if he was in front of the others. He would shout into the sky how much he cared for Byleth, even in front of a crowded street or if he ever had a coronation. Byleth’s eyes crinkled with happiness then, and he nodded. “You know you can call me Byleth. Better yet, please do.” But when Dimitri did it was far too much to bear.


End file.
